4 pin firewire mouse? USB hub? hmm

condra

Hi.

Does anyone know where I can get a 4 pin firewire mouse?

Im using my Inspiron 5160 for music and the external soundcard and mouse are taking up the 2 USB ports leaving no room for my usb keyboard [midi music keyboard]..

Rather than get a USB hub which may not work with my keyboard, Id prefer to get a 4 pin firewire mouse but cant find one.. any other advice appreciated..

Making do with the touchpad is out of the question.

Has anyone used USB hubs and how reliable are they?
It says in the documentation of both my soundcard and my keyboard that using them with the computers usb ports is reccommended.

Any advice appreciated

TIA
womoma

Stark

USB hubs are very reliable apparently.

There is a limit to how many devices you can daisy chain this way, but attaching an extra mouse shouldn't cause any problems especially as a mouse would use harldy any power.

Nukem

Have a USB 1.1 - 4 to 1 and its fine. My comp lappie goes a bit nuz(doesnt detect the USB's on startup) but once ya pull it out and push it in its fine.Thats just the lappie though. Get a 4or8 convertot USB2.0 its easier.

PS.Touchpads wreck my head

condra

Thanks for the advice.

I think I will probably try a USB hub first [considering I would probably be needing a hub at some stage anyway] and if that doesnt work then maybe try the 9v adapter..

Im not optimistic as I was told that midi devices with hubs are a no no.

Im pretty lousy at electronnic stuff- I wonder- would any 9v adapter do? Do i just ask for a 9v DC adapter and the helpfull storeperson knows exactly what I mean? I dont wanna blow the radium up.

I was just reading the manual [always a good idea hehe] and it seems I can have the best of both worlds- ie, using a USB hub I can power the Radium 61, but send information to the soundcard using MIDI cable.. This seems like a nice option.. :rolleyes: god i hate being a technophobe

condra

PS.Touchpads wreck my head

me too - i also hate trackballs.
I also hate the fact that my laptop only came with 2 USB ports and IEEE "firewire" thing which is mostly useless..
By the way - good work on gettin a laptop forum goin.

Inspector Gadget

You need to check the power requirements for your keyboard, mouse, sound card etc. and see which way 'round you can connect them (there are two classes of USB devices, one that consume < 500mA, another that consumes <100mA. A USB port at a powered hub (one sticking out of a computer/laptop qualifies here too) can deliver up to 500mA, so do the maths and see what (should) work (an unpowered hub can only provide roughly the 500mA it gets from the lappie). The mouse is almost certainly a low-power (< 100ma) device; don't know about the other two.

Pity there don't seem to be any PS/2 ports on that thing.

Gadget

Infini

womoma wrote:

me too - i also hate trackballs.
I also hate the fact that my laptop only came with 2 USB ports and IEEE "firewire" thing which is mostly useless..
By the way - good work on gettin a laptop forum goin.

Does your laptop not have a Cardbus slot?

condra

eh.. i dont think so... i dont know..
jeez im such a technophobe

it has a "PC card slot" at the hard drive bay...which is occupied by what seems like a blank card thingy.. its black plastic like a fat credit card and it says dell on it..

Am I right in thinking its possible to get some sort of adapter for these slots to add usb/firewire ports? I thought it was for shtuff like vodafone cards?? god im dizzy..

Infini

http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=633249#description
It would be something like this maybe. The slot you removed the black card from, does it have a button next to it that clicks in and out?

condra

yeahhhhhhhhhh..
**** man your good.. check that out!
so 32 dollars in usa i should get one here for 50 quid.. somewhere..

thanks infini - that seems like the perfect solution

Nukem

This one is 20euro when it comes back in but skulk around you might pick one up handy, or just go USB hub there well cheap check Komplett & Elara

rsynnott

There's no such thing as a 4 pin firewire mouse, I think. Only separately powered devices can be run off four pins.